Alabama Thanksgiving

So, I know this post is out of order, but I wanted to share about my fun Thanksgiving that I spent in Alabama!

My whole family ended up making to Alabama and even Scott got to join us! We spent 5 days with MeeMaw's brother, Uncle Jimmy, and his wife, Betty. Scott and I flew in from New York where we had been visiting my friend Anna, and before that we were in Philly because Scott was a coach at the Cole Hamels' pitching camp! That's a story for another day though :) So, Scott and I drove to Demopolis/Linden (two small towns and they live right in between two) from the Jackson airport. By the time we got there everyone had already fed the cows for the first time and were busy fishing, shooting BB guns, and taking 4-wheeler rides! For the next few days we ate some of the best food ever made (Betty is the greatest cook! She worked so hard for us all week) and got to do all kinds of fun outdoors-ey stuff. We all ended up catching fish in Uncle Jimmy's two ponds, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner, rode 4-wheelers, shot BB guns and skeet with shotguns, rode horses, fed the cows, and had bonfires every night, s'mores included! Anyway, it was a wonderful trip and we are all so thankful to Jimmy and Betty for letting us come stay and take over their house for a few days!!!

Here are a ton of pics from the week:

Courtney and Jill getting ready to feed the cows.

Aaron 4-wheeling with the little boys

The cousins

Dad carving the turkey

How cute is Jill in her cold weather clothes???? (I just woke up in this pic)

Courtney and most of the little girls... they LOVED Courtney!

By the food as always! :)

Jake's 1st fish!

Anthony and Josh- Josh's first fish!

Scott feeding the cows, haha

My hand is in the cows tongue!!! This is Bully, she loved being hand-fed

Big family pic!

Uncle Jimmy by the fire with the boys

Fire's up and ready! Time to roast marshmellows!

Hangin' out by the fire- Dad, Scott, me, Jake, Owen

(This was our time for "ghost stories". The little boys used the code word "peaches" while telling stories to signal to each other to jump out and scare everyone. So cute!)

D-mop water tower (our hotel is in the back ground)

Owen and Paw Paw with Owen's fish!

JJ's HRUGE fish!!! She caught the biggest by far!

Their 3 beautiful horses!

Scott and me- just wanted to show the pretty scenery

Kiki was a good s'mores lady

Me and sweet Jakey

Mom with Josh, he's such a snuggler

My Mom, Dad, Courtney, Anthony, Scott and I made a trip to the University of Alabama to see the campus. It was BEAUTIFUL! This is in front of the football stadium.

Dreamland- they had AMAZING ribs and food in general! This was Scott's one request while in Alabama.

At the Bama baseball field

Scott gave Jake a pitching lesson... so cute!

Hahaha... we had all been trying to pet the cows but they got skittish when we'd get close! Scott finally got it!

Hahaha Kiki's fish was outta control

Church with Jimmy and Betty!

Annie Oakley- oh wait, that's me! Not gonna lie, I was pretty darn good.

My Mom was too short to climb up so we loaded her on from the back of the truck, haha

Aaron and Owen, so cute

Jill playing with MeeMaw :)

Somehow the trip home from the airport was overlooked- my family squeezed in to get to the airport which meant Scott and I had no ride, haha. This was the town car guy with a sign that had our names!

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Dinner at my little apartment in Switzerland!

Matching PJ's from last year

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been able to get on and update everyone! I promise that one of these days I will be able to a. stay up to date on my blogs and b. learn how to create albums so I can show all of my fun pictures instead of just a few!

Most importantly right now though.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just love this time of year for so many reasons! I think my favorite thing is all of the great memories and traditions I have with my family. On Christmas Eve my aunts, uncles and cousins would all come over and we'd hang out, sing songs, play games, and open presents from everyone but immediate family. Then, my sisters and I would open a present from my parents which was always matching PJ's (yes, we still get matching PJ's to this day, and sometimes they are footies, haha). We'd put our PJ's on, get all of our last minute presents wrapped and then it was time for the most important part of the night! We would all sit down to read Twas the Night Before Christmas. Usually Kiki or Courtney would read, and whoever didn't read would act it out for us, which was always comical! If you know Courtney and Kiki you'd understand! Jennifer and I would just sit and laugh. After that, we'd all pile into the same room and have a slumber party. About 20 minutes after we'd head up to bed, inevitably we would hear Santa's bells (yes, my mom would actually stand in the hallway and shake some bells to make us think Santa was close, haha). In the morning, we'd all have to sit at the top of the stairs until my parents got the camera and everything ready. Then, we'd run down the stairs and look through all of the stuff we got from Santa! I don't think anyone can forget that feeling of excitement going into see what Santa brought! We'd finish opening presents from each other and spend the rest of the day hanging out together and playing with our presents. Then, we'd all sit down for a nice Christmas Linner (Lunch/dinner).

We've kept our traditions through the years with little changes here and there. It's definitely sad in some ways that things have had to change, like the fact that this year will be the first year I have no sister's to have a slumber party with tonight!!! But the changes have come from wonderful things happening to our family.... like, nephews and nieces, and husbands that have married into the family! So, I can't really complain too much!!! :) Our family has grown a lot and we've had a ton of fun tweaking the traditions to fit our lives now!

I'm also hoping that one of these year's Scott will get to join in on the family fun! Hopefully we won't scare him away, haha.

Merry Christmas to you and your families! I hope you get to spend time with your loved ones and just enjoy the time you get together!

As another side note... Please take a second to say a little prayer for all of our soldiers who are over fighting in the war and their families. I can't imagine having to be without my loved ones at a time like this. And say a little prayer for my cousin Kelli and her husband Mark. Mark is over in Afghanistan fighting and I know he and Kelli wish they could be together and with their families!

Thanks soldiers for all that you do!!!!

Here are a couple pics from this time last year, crazy we were in Europe!

Courtney and I on the train

Skiing in Zermatt- AMAZING!

Matching PJ pic again :) With my cute little tree in the back ground

I'll put more pics of all of my family up as soon as my Mom sends me some!!! :)